Election process game board apparatus

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed game board apparatus and playing method relating to the election of a candidate through an election process. The apparatus comprises a game board having a playing path with areas designating various types of vote-getting practices and other areas designating various States that can be won by votes gained as a result of the vote-getting practices.

United States Patent Kristen Sept. 23, 1975 [5 ELECTION PROCESS GAMEBOARD 3.368.816 2/1968 Milazzo at al 273/134 AC APPARATUS [76] Inventor:Edward J. Kristen, 162 Cushwa Dr., Primary Exami"er Amon Oechslecentcrvme Ohio 45459 Attorney, Agent. or Firm-Joseph J. Grass [22]Filed: Aug. 2, 1974 57 ABSTRACT There is disclosed game board apparatusand playing method relating to the election of a candidate through Appl.No.: 494,211

[52] U.S. Cl 273/134 AD; 273/134 C an election pmccm The apparatuscomprises a game [51] Int. Cl: A63F 3/04 board having a playing pathwith areas designating [58] Field of Search 273/134 Various types ofnegating practices and other areas designating various States that canbe won by votes [56] References cued gained as a result of thcvote-getting practices.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,717,157 9 1955 Dylewski 273/134 AC 7 Claims- 7Drawing Figures Q Abnlamu South York Texizonu cglivaniu 4 Z 9 num nqv 10 qmos nuozgxal mun/( o3 nuuomg ma ngugbgm S t A an ,(suua 2i i I d p ifi Minninois Oklarusku 2/ g 5 3 8 it p a 3 2 a Z6 nguaomn sgouguugwuxsnmmo J Utio a North York Mippississi ldakota 2 3 7 2 7 l 0 mntosauunl 1pc quoN |ss!ssgddgw o oxnp 7 Campaign 2] Begins a EU:

ELECTION PROCESS GAME BOARD APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1.Field of the Invention This invention relates to the art of game boardappa- 5 ratus and playing methods.

2. Brief Description of the Prior Art The following US. Pat. Nos. aremade of record: 1,907,255; 2,209,1l7; 2,930,621; 3,525,526.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION lated to each respective vote-getting practicearea indicative of the number of popular votes for the respectivevote-getting practice and with a plurality of other areas designatingvarious States and indicia related to each respective State areaindicative of the respective number of electoral votes that the Staterepresents. The players advance along the playing path through thenumber of spaces determined by chance means'such as dice. The area onwhich a player lands is marked by a distinctive marker. As playcommences and a player lands on a certain vote-getting area, the landedplayer acquires a certificate or receipt which entitles the landedplayer to receive popular votes corresponding to the vote gettingpractice represented by the certificate the next time that landed playerlands on the'a'rea representative of the same vote-getting practice.When play has progressed to the point that voting can begin, the playerscast their votes for the States within one region or section of thecountry. The players cast their votes by placing their votes on one ormore State areas. Each player determines how many votes to cast on aparticular State in order to win the States electoral votes. THe votesare represented by cards which are of a size that they can be placed onthe desired State area or areas. The popular votes or vote cards havingdifferent vote denominations are distinguishable so that the popularvotes of one player can be distinguished from those of the otherplayers. One side orface of each popular vote card has a designation asto how many votes are represented by the card and its other side is freeof any such designation. In that the players place their votes face downon the State areas the opponents are unaware of the number of votes theother players cast for any State until the voting for that region orsection of the country is complete. Assuming there are four players. theplayer or candidate receiving the least number of electoral votes inthat region drops out, and play resumes for the next region by theremaining players acquiring popular votes by the method steps indicatedabove, and thereafter voting as indicated above for the States in thenext region, and so on. The player or candidate with a predeterminednumber of electoral votes is the winner. By an alternate method of play,all the players can stay in the game and vote in all the retoral votesbeing the winner.

3,368,816; and

, BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a gameboard of the apparatus of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of distinctive markers;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a pair of dice;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of popular votes;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of instructional cards;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of receipts or receipt cards; and

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of electoral vote cards or certificates.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIG. 1,there is shown a game board 10 having a playing path 11 and a field 12representing various States. The playing pathe 11 is shown to extendaround the perimetral margin of the board 10. The board 10 isillustrated as being square although it can be constructed of othershapes, if desired. The path 11 is shown to comprise areas 13 through52.

The starting place of the path 11 is area 13 designated Campaign Begins.Areas 14 through I7, 19

through 22, 24 through 27, 29. through 32, 34 through 37, 39 through 42,44 through 47, and 49 through 52 are considered to be vote-getting areasin that they represent various vote-getting practices used'in politicalcampaigns. Areas 14, 24, 34, and 44 represent one type of vote-gettingpractice, namely the use of Campaign Buttons worth votes, areas 15, 25,35, and 45 represent another type of vote-getting practice, namely theuse of Campaign Posters worth fifty votes, areas 16, 26,

34 and 46 represent another type of vote-getting practice, namely theuse of Billboards worth votes, areas 17, 27, 37 and 47 represent atypeof vote-getting practice, namely the use of Newspaper Ads worth onehundred votes, areas 19, 29, 39 and 49 represent a type of vote-gettingpractice, namely the use of Radio Ads worth votes, areas20, 30, 40 and50 represent a type of vote-getting practice, namely the use of CampaignTour with votes, areas 21, 31, 41 and 51 represent the type ofvote-getting practice, namely the use of TV Ads worth votes and areas22., 32, 42 and 52 represent a type of vote-getting practice, namely theuse of $200 A Plate Dinner worth two hundred votes. Each type ofvote-getting practice .area for example areas 14, 24, 34 and 44 aredistinctively coded as by the same color and the color coding of onetype area differs from thefco'lor coding of any othervote-gettingpractice area. Each vote-getting area also has indicia indicative of thenumber of popular votes which are peculiar to that vote-gettingpractice. Areas 18, 28, 38 and 43 areconsidered to be instructionalareas and are designated Campaign News. There are a plurality ofinstructional cards 53 (FIG. 5) related to these instructional areas.Areas 23 and 43 are also instructional areas. Area 23 contains theinstruction, You may have any available receipt," and area 43 containthe instruction, You may turn in any receipt for value." Area 33 is alsoan instructional area in that it contains the instruction, Shoot DiceOdd Numbers Go BACK Even Numbers Go FORWARD."

I -The field. 12 is shown disposed within the path 11. The field l-2.isdivided into a plurality of sections or regions 54,- 55 and56 by meansof respective distinctive lines 57, 58 and 59. The lines 57, 58 and 59are preferably of contrasting colors. The regions 54, and 56 contain thefollowing State areas having the indicated number of electoral votes:

The game can be played by two, three or four players. One of the playerscan serve initially as the election judge. Each player is assigned oneofthe distinctive markers 76'through 79 which serve to mark the respcc*tive players-landed position along the path 11. The markers can be madedistinctive'by color, for example the marker 76 can be red, the marker77 can be yellow, the marker 78 can be blue, and the marker 79 can begreen. Play begins at the Campaign Begins area 13 and the playersadvance in turn in accordance with the number indicated by a chancedevice such as the pair of'dicc 80'. I

There are also provided distinctive votes or vote cards 81' through 84.The cards 81 through 84 are preferably the same size as or smaller thanthe individual areas 'through so thatthcy can be superimposed on theseareas during the casting of the popular votes. The'votes can be be madedistinctive by color, for example the votes 81 can be red, the votes 82can be yellow, the votes 83 can be blue and the votes 84 can be green.Thus, the marker and the votes for a particular player have the samecolor code. The votes particular to each player have the followingdenominations: 10, 25, 50, and 100. Each vote card is designated withone of-thcse denominations on its'one face, but the other side is devoidof any indication of the denomination.

The apparatus also includes receipts or receipt cards for each of thevote-getting practice areas. These-receipt cards are color-coded thesame as the votegetting practice areas they represent as illustrated inFIG. 6; this facilitates playing of the game. There are illustrated arepresentative sample of receipt cards 85 through 88which function asreceipts for respective areas' in the path 11. The cards 85 representCampaign Buttons and carry indicia indicative of twenty-five votes, thecards 86 represent Campaign Posters and carry indicia indicative offifty votes. the cards 87 represent Billboards and carry indiciaindicative of seventy-fivc votes, and the cards 88 represent NewspaperAds and carry indicia indicative-of one hundred votes. There are twocards each of cards 85 through 88 in the illustrated embodiment.

The apparatus also includes cards representative of the electoral votesof each State. Representative electoral votes 89 through 93 areillustrated in FIG. 7. Each electoral vote card states-the name of theState and the number of electoral votes.

. In describingthe method-of play, itwill be assumed that there are fourplayers. The player who serves as election judge initially has custodyof the markers 76 through 79, the popular vote cards8l, 82 and so forth,instructional cards 53, receipt cards 85, 86, and so on. The players caneither select the markers they desire or they can be assigned by chance,as by rolling the dice 80. his apparent thatother formsof chancemeansbesides dice, for example a spin'ner or cards can be used in theapparatus. The players place their markers initially in the area 13. Theelection judge now gives each player 8 cards of tenpopular votes, of thedistinctive color or designation for the respective player. The playersroll the dice 80 in turn and advance their respective markers along thepath 11 in accordance with the number shown on the dice 80; Assuming thefirst player, that is, the player with the marker 76 rolls a four usingthe dice 80, that player will land hismarker 76 on the area 17. Thatplayer will now receive one ofthe two receipt cards 88-from the electionjudge. Each of the other players in turn receives a receipt card uponlanding on a vote-getting area. There are only a finite number ofreceipt cards, namely two for each type of votegetting practice in theillustrated embodiment. When the election judge no longer has anyreceipt cards 85, 86 and so on, the player or players landing on therespective area along the path ll do not receive any receipt card. Forexample, assuming the first player has a card 88 for Newspaper Ads, thatplayer can receive one hundred votes 81 when he lands on any area 17,27, 37 or 47. Let it be assumed that the first player, upon the nextroll of the dice, rolls a ten and thus lands on area 27. Uponsurrendering the receipt card 88, acquired when that player landed onarea 17, to the election judge, thcfir st player receives votes in thatplayers color,-red, for example for the first player, in thedenomination he desires. Any player can receive popular votes of hiscolor whenever he surrenders to the election judge a certificaterepresentative of the vote-getting practice upon which he lands. Theelection judge can pass out the surrendered receipt card 88 to the sameplayer or another player that lands on one of the areas 17, 27,37 or 47.Play proceeds until one of the players has traveled around the path 11three times. Each player is, however, afforded the same number of turns.

Each time a plycr lands on an instructional area 18, 28 38 or 48 andareas 23, 33 and 43, that player has to follow the appropriateinstruction as indicated on the respective card 53 or on the board 10.The instructional cards 53 are placed face downin a stack so thatthercis an elcmentof surprise when a player draws the top card. When oneplayer has made three passes around the path 11 and the other playershave each had the same number of turns rolling the dice, the playerswill have acquired various numbers of popular votes 81 through 84 intheir respective colors. The election judge now designates the sequencein which the elecregion 54. The player having the highest number ofpopular votes for area 60 wins all five electoral votes and is presentedwith the respective electoral vote card by the election judge. Theplayer receiving the least number of electoral votes must now drop outfrom the election. If the losing (or drop out) player was not initiallythe election judge, the losing player now becomes the election judge forthe duration of the game. Now the remaining players repeat thecampaigning process of rolling the dice 80 and passing around the path11 until one of the players has made three complete passes around thepath 11 past Campaign Begins area 13 and the other players have had thesame number of turns at rolling the dice 80. The positions of themarkers 76 through 79 from the first three passes around the path 11 hadnot been disturbed and the players start the repeat campaigning processin these positions. Popular votes are acquired in the same manner asdescribed above. The election judge now decides the sequence of thevoting in region 55 and the players cast their votes by placing themface down on the areas 65 through 68. The player with the most popularvotes on a particular State area earns all the electoral votes for thatState. The player with the least cumulative number of electoral votesfor the regions 54 and 55 drops out of the game. Play between theremaining two players proceeds in the same manner for region 56. Theplayer with a predetermined number of electoral votes for all theregions 54, 55 and 56, namely 37 electoral votes is declared to be thewinner by the election judge.

In an alternate method of play, all the players can stay in the gameuntil they have all voted in all the regions 54, 55 and 56, in whichevent the player with the highest number of electoral votes is declaredthe winner.

Other embodiments and modifications of this invention will suggestthemselves to those skilled in the art, and all such of these as comewithin the spirit of this in vention are included within its scope bestdefined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Game board apparatus, comprising: a game board having a playing path,the playing path having a plurality of areas designating various typesof vote-getting practices, the game board having areas designatingvarious States, certificates for indicating participation in the variousvote-getting practices, chance means for determining the number of areasalong the path through which the players advance in turn, marker meansfor each player for indicating the area to which the respective playerhas advanced in accordance with the chance means, a set of popular votecards for each player, the popular vote cards for each player being inmore than one denomination, one side of each popular vote card having adesignation as to how many votes are represented by the card and theother side being free of any such designation, the popular vote cardsbeing of a size to be superimposed on the individual State designatingareas, the sets of popular vote cards having means for visuallydistinguishing the set of popular vote cards of each player from the setof popular vote cards of each other player, the playing path enablingthe players to advance in turn to the vote-getting practice areas andthus receiving the certificates, and upon landing on the samevote-getting area again, receiving votes in the form of the popular votecards which can be used in winning one or more States, and a separateelectoral vote certificate corresponding to each State to be issued tothe player who wins the respective State.

2. Game board apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the States areseparated into at least two regions so that voting can take placesuccessively from one region to another.

3. Game board apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the markers havemeans for visually distinguishing the marker of one player from themarker of any other player, and wherein the marker-visualdistinguishingmeans for any one player corresponds to thepopular-vote-card-distinguishing means for that player.

4. Game board apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the visualdistinguishing means comprises a different color code for each player,and wherein the marker for each player has the same color code as therespective color code on the popular vote cards.

5. Game board apparatus, comprising: a game board having a playing path,the playing path having a plurality of areas designating various typesof vote-getting practices, the game board having areas designatingvarious States, certificates for indicating participation in the variousvote-getting practices, chance means for determining the number of areasalong the path through which the respective player has advanced inaccordance with the chance means, a set of popular vote cards for eachplayer, the popular vote cards being of a size to be superimposed on theindividual State designating areas, the sets of popular vote cardshaving means for visually distinguishing the set of popular vote cardsof each player from the set of popular vote cards of each other player,the playing path enabling the players to advance in turn to thevote-getting practice areas and thus receiving the certificates, andupon landing on the votegetting practice area again, receiving votes inthe form of the popular vote cards which can be used in winning one ormore States, wherein the popular vote cards for each player are in morethan one denomination, one side of each popular vote card having adesignation as to' how many votes are represented by the card and theother side being free of any such designation, wherein the markers havemeans for visually distinguishing the marker of one player from themarker of any other player, and wherein the marker-visual-distinguishingmeans for each player corresponds to thepopular-vote-card-distinguishing means for that player.

6. Game board apparatus as defined in claim 5, wherein the visualdistinguishing means comprise color coding.

7. Game board apparatus as defined in claim 5, wherein the States areseparated into at least two regions so that voting can take placesuccessively from one region to another.

UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTIONPATENT NO. 3907299 DATED September 23, 1975 INV ENTOR(S) Edward J.Kristin It is certified that error appears in the above-identifiedpatent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

In the heading of the patent, item 76, the inventors name should beEdward J. Kristin instead of Edward J. Kristen Signed and Scaled this[SEAL] twenty-third Day Of December 1975 Atlest:

RUT Affair-Inf (ii /{SON C. MARSHALL DANN 8 I Commissioner uj'Parentsand Trademarks

1. Game board apparatus, comprising: a game board having a playing path,the playing path having a plurality of areas designating various typesof vote-getting practices, the game board having areas designatingvarious States, certificates for indicating participation in the variousvote-getting practices, chance means for determining the number of areasalong the path through which the players advance in turn, marker meansfor each player for indicating the area to which the respective playerhas advanced in accordance with the chance means, a set of popular votecards for each player, the popular vote cards for each player being inmore than one denomination, one side of each popular vote card having adesignation as to how many votes are represented by the card and theother side being free of any such designation, the popular vote cardsbeing of a size to be superimposed on the individual State designatingareas, the sets of popular vote cards having means for visuallydistinguishing the set of popular vote cards of each player from the setof popular vote cards of each other player, the playing path enablingthe players to advance in turn to the vote-getting practice areas andthus receiving the certificates, and upon landing on the samevote-getting area again, receiving votes in the form of the popular votecards which can be used in winning one or more States, and a separateelectoral vote certificate corresponding to each State to be issued tothe player who wins the respective State.
 2. Game board apparatus asdefined in claim 1, wherein the States are separated into at least tworegions so that voting can take place successively from one region toanother.
 3. Game board apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein themarkers have means for visually distinguishing the marker of one playerfrom the marker of any other player, and wherein themarker-visual-distinguishing means for any one player corresponds to thepopular-vote-card-distinguishing means for that player.
 4. Game boardapparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the visual distinguishing meanscomprises a different color code for each player, and wherein the markerfor each player has the same color code as the respective color code onthe popular vote cards.
 5. Game board apparatus, comprising: a gameboard having a playing path, the playing path having a plurality ofareas designating various types of vote-getting practices, the gameboard having areas designating various States, certificates forindicating participation in the various vote-getting practices, chancemeans for determining the number of areas along the path through whichthe respective player has advanced in accordance with the chance means,a set of popular vote cards for each player, the popular vote cardsbeing of a size to be superimposed on the individual State designatingareas, the sets of popular vote cards having means for visuallydistinguishing the set of popular vote cards of each player from the setof popular vote cards of each other player, the playing path enablingthe players to advance in turn to the vote-getting practice areas andthus receiving the certificates, and upon landing on the vote-gettingpractice area again, receiving votes in the form of the popular votecards which can be used in winning one or more States, wherein thepopular vote cards for each player are in more than one denomination,one side of each popular vote card having a designation as to how manyvotes are represented by the card and the other side being free of anysuch designation, wherein the markers have means for visuallydistinguishing the marker of one player from the marker of any otherplayer, and whereiN the marker-visual-distinguishing means for eachplayer corresponds to the popular-vote-card-distinguishing means forthat player.
 6. Game board apparatus as defined in claim 5, wherein thevisual distinguishing means comprise color coding.
 7. Game boardapparatus as defined in claim 5, wherein the States are separated intoat least two regions so that voting can take place successively from oneregion to another.